Hope through innovation: Brain-computer interfaces may aid paralyzed individuals

 Study participant Tim Hemmes (right) reaching out to his researcher, Wei Wang, M.D., Ph.D. (left), using a brain-controlled prosthetic arm. Also pictured: Research team member Jennifer L. Collinger, Ph.D. and Katie Schaffer.

Robotic-mind control, popularized in the 2009 epic science fiction film, “Avatar,” may not be as far off as we imagine it to be. Scientists have already been researching brain-computer interfaces [BCI] for years.

 A Nov. 11 article in MIT Technology Review shows that a newly developed carbon microthread may be the kind of long-lasting electrode needed to improve BCI. In preliminary studies, BCI have allowed paralyzed people to control robotic limbs or a computer mouse.

The new microthread, designed at the University of Michigan’s Neural Engineering lab, is only seven micrometers thick, about 100 times thinner than traditional electrodes used to study animal brains.

Andrew Schwartz, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who was not involved in the work, said in the article that it’s widely believed small fibers are “a good thing, because they seem to be ‘ignored’ by the brain.” But he also cautioned “that it could be difficult to insert such fine, flexible electrodes into brain tissue, and to secure them,” noting that recordings broke down in many of the animals studied.

Though these innovations are not exactly solid yet, they are breaking new ground, and it’s exciting to think about their potential for people suffering from spinal cord injuries that have left them paralyzed.

Back in 2008, a monkey at the University of Pittsburgh was able to feed himself a marshmallow using his brain to directly control a robotic arm. Since then, this research has expanded to human beings.

A little over a year ago, the Pitt Chronicle of the University of Pittsburgh showed how a BCI impacted 30-year old Tim Hemmes, who had been paralyzed due to a SCI from a motorcycle accident in 2004. With a mind-controlled prosthetic arm, he was able to reach up and touch the hand of his girlfriend, Katie Schaffer, “in a painstaking and tender high five,” the article published on Oct. 17 of last year stated. 

Surgeons placed a grid the size of a stamp on the motor cortex surface of Hemmes’ brain to control a robotic arm for the four-week trial period. The BCI picks up neural activity that can be translated by a computer processor to control computer cursors or assistive devices such as a prosthetic hand.

The research project funded by the National Institutes of Health in early 2011 received Popular Mechanics magazine’s 2012 Breakthrough Award. The magazine honored Hemmes, and the research team led by Wei Wang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pitt School of Medicine, at an invitation-only conference and gala awards ceremony in New York City last month. The project is also featured in the November issue of Popular Mechanics.